Emisarry Of Time And Space-Chapter 206 - 207: Alice’s emotions

Alice was ecstatic, this was the most fun she had had in years, fighting and relating with those pompous and self gratifying noble children in the academy had been boring beyond believe.

The academy had been suffocating in hindsight. Endless lectures, formal sparring, carefully curated rivalries that never crossed a real line. Everyone talked big about legacy and bloodlines, yet most of them had never faced anything that truly wanted them dead. Their arrogance was exhausting. Their self-importance even more so.

The most fun she had had there was beaten up those who were tactless enough to talk about the situation of her family, but those days were behind her now. There was only so much satisfaction to be found in knocking sense into people who never learned. Eventually, even that lost its edge.

She had no one to beat up, no one to fight with, it was simply, train, train and train some more. Endless repetition. Endless refinement. It was fulfilling in a technical sense, especially when she needed to burn off frustration or anger, but it was also sluggish. Progress came in fractions instead of leaps. No matter how much effort she put in, improvement felt muted, restrained.

Paired with the fact that she hadn't seen much improvement, the frustration was getting to her.

But thanks to Grandpa Jude, she had finally found a way to do something more than train.

He hadn't offered comfort or empty encouragement. He had offered an opportunity. Something real. Something dangerous. Something that demanded growth, whether she was ready or not.

Joining the Niver family had been annoying initially; it was obvious they looked down on her, and she couldn't fully blame them. She was young, the youngest amongst them all, and the one with the least experience. Their dissatisfaction with giving out a spot, their family had apparently earned to a 15 year old girl from another family was obvious, and it was made further worse when said family was a rapidly falling Marquis family.

She saw it in the way they spoke to her. In the pauses. In the looks exchanged when they thought she wasn't paying attention. She was an inconvenience. A political compromise. Someone else's burden.

In fact, she had heard many had dropped the suggestion for the Duke to drop their rank, their family strength was no longer enough to qualify for such a rank, many other's sought the Marquis rank after all, the Niver family part.

The whispers were never quiet enough. Nobility had a way of pretending decorum while sharpening knives behind closed doors.

But against all expectations, they still remained a Marquis family, the duke left their rank the same.

Alice didn't see it as something good, nothing the Chronos family did was seen as good in her eyes, it was all a ploy for something, she had convinced herself, a ploy she was powerless to go against currently, but not forever.

She refused to believe in coincidence when it came to the Chronos. Their influence was too broad, their reach too precise. Everything they did rippled outward. This was no different.

But, things had changed, the once malicious gazes had turned to grudging respect, she had proved she was just as strong as them despite the age gap.

It hadn't been immediate. Respect never was. It had been earned the only way that mattered out here—through blood, exhaustion, and survival. She didn't fold in battle. She didn't freeze when things went wrong. She didn't slow them down.

They had fought dangerous monsters and creatures in this gruelling forest.

The Jade Forest didn't care about rank or reputation. It punished weakness indiscriminately. And Alice thrived in that environment.

She wasn't sure if she was losing herself or if something was up with her but frankly, she didn't care; she enjoyed the killing, the adrenaline and the fear of the unexpected was thrilling.

Each encounter stripped away hesitation. Each close call sharpened her instincts. Fear became fuel instead of restraint.

And best of all, she could feel herself getting better with every dangerous encounter; she fought with the members as a team, she fought alone, she fought bare-handed.

Weapons broke. Formations collapsed. Sometimes survival meant improvisation, and Alice adapted faster each time. She trusted her body. She trusted her reactions. She trusted herself.

Unlike the Chronos, the spatial awareness of their team wasn't high; you had to be on guard all the time but you also had to move. They weren't just here to kill monsters after all, they were to complete a mission.

Every step mattered. Every mistake costs energy. Standing still was as dangerous as charging blindly.

In the first 3 days, she had even started considering that they were sent on a suicide mission because, as much as she enjoyed fighting and killing monsters, she was aware that they had a limit, and she wasn't prepared to die.

That thought had lingered longer than she liked to admit. Enjoyment didn't erase realism. There were limits to stamina, reaction, recovery. Limits she had no intention of discovering the hard way.

But consider or not, it didn't change anything, they had to keep moving forward, she couldn't go back alone, neither did she want to and going back with the group was impossible, these people had the expectations of their family on their hands, as well as their pride.

Failure wasn't just personal. It was collective. Everyone here carried more than themselves.

Then there was the reward for succeeding the mission, apparently the Chronos were pretty generous with their rewards, although no family had managed to earn them, the rewards always ended up in the hands of the Chronos descendants after all.

That alone was enough to sour her mood.

Hearing that had pissed Alice off, so the Chronos simply used other families to up the competition for their descendants and reward their descendants when they come out on top, it was infuriating.

It felt exploitative. Calculated. Like everything else they touched.

But the other families didn't seem to mind, the appeal of the reward was just too high and it wasn't like they were being cheated, the Chronos literally sent 14 to 15 year olds every year and they come out on top over them, it was also a matter of subtle pride, besides it really didn't cost them much.

That logic didn't sit well with her, but she understood it.

And so they kept moving and fighting and on the 5th day when the tiredness had started seeping into their bones, they encountered another team of almost equal numbers, at first they had been wary; it was the Verdant family, a powerful Marquis family higher in rank than the Niver, but their wariness was misplaced.

Caution turned into negotiation. Negotiation into cooperation.

Both teams after deliberation, decided to merge, it eased the burden on the individual teams, they would continue together at least until a major lead comes up.

Numbers mattered. Coverage mattered. And trust—however tentative—was better than isolation.

And so they continued, Alice got to know a few remarkable individuals from the Verdant family, they were amiable and didn't judge.

No sideways looks. No whispered comparisons. Just people doing what needed to be done.

Things were subtly looking up.

And then on the eleventh day, she encountered them, that same silver hair that logic or not, brought back her family's demise.